I read with great interest a recent study by King’s College London into the actual cost of the Government’s planned legal aid reforms – particularly relating to the savings to the public purse relating to medical negligence claims.

The Government's plans to remove medical negligence claims as well as other areas from the scope of legal aid will not save as much as it thinks.

The Government predicts it will save £270 million through the proposed reforms to legal aid, but the King’s College financial analysis says less than half that will actually be realised. There is also evidence that the cuts will actually result in additional costs for the taxpayer as the burden will shift on to other areas of the public sector including the nhs, local councils and charities.

The report by Dr Graham Cookson called: ‘Unintended Consequences: the cost of the Government’s Legal Aid Reforms’ looks at family law, social welfare and clinical negligence law, which together add up to 85 percent of the total civil legal aid bill.

Dr Cookson said: ‘This research undermines the Government’s economic rationale for changing the scope of legal aid by casting doubt on its claims of realising savings to the public purse.”

For example, the study found that in the arena of clinical negligence cases, cutting £10.5m for legal aid will cause knock-on costs to the NHS of £28.5m. Or, put another way, for every £1 the Ministry of Justice saves removing clinical negligence from the scope of legal aid, the NHS could end up being liable for up to £3.

Dr Cookson, who works for the university’s Department of Management, identified subsequent knock-on costs totalling £139 million per year – leaving only 42 per cent of the savings the Government hopes to make. These unintended costs will largely be borne by other government departments.

He added: ‘Without a trial, it is impossible to say for certain what the impact of the proposals will be, just as it is impossible for the Government to assert that there will be a net saving of £270 million per annum. However, my research suggests that the net savings could be half of those predicted in the Government’s forecast, while removing legal aid for almost 600,000 cases a year.’

Last week Tory and Crossbench peers rebelled against the Government’s legal aid reforms.